Dating Adzuken – Seduce Me

This series of articles has been one big journey of sexual discovery. For example, I’ve discovered I’m really into supernatural beings; werewolves, vampires, demons, lawyers, etc. Basically anyone who could rip me in half on a whim. Probably a bad foundation for a relationship, admittedly.

Unfortunately, such a caliber of lover is somewhat rare in the romance games I’ve played. I decided to seek such a game out and came across Seduce Me on Steam. It’s free, so what the heck? It might be the closest thing to Diabolik Lovers I get until someone decides to localize it.

So, with that introduction out of the way, I’m once again delving into a romantic visual novel in search of a virtual lover. Note that I will be disclosing heavy spoilers, so if you are interested in the sub-genre, read the first heading and decide if you want to play it before delving into the rest of the article. As always, let me know if you have any juicy suggestions.

FAREWELL, GRANDPA

Before we start, let me give you the same warning the game gave me. Seduce Me contains sexual/violent themes. Trigger warnings are abuse, implied rape, and suicide. No, trust me, this isn’t as dark as visual novels get — not by a wide margin.

For a game with as straightforward a name as “Seduce Me” the actual narrative takes a bit to get built up. My rich and loving grandfather dies and leaves me his entire estate. My dad, being a tremendous douche, sends me to live alone at the mansion, which is where I find a group of incubi who immediately take to sexually assaulting me. So this is basically the setup of Diabolik Lovers just with fewer fangs.

Well, okay, not really. While the vampires of Diabolik Lovers are aggressive towards the main character, the incubi of Seduce Me lull my avatar into complacency before stealing a kiss. They exist in a more subservient role, rather than treating the protagonist like a toy. She’s more of a princess, they’re her harem. And instead of blood, they feed off of sexual energy.

So, there’s five of them: Damien, who can read minds; James, a stickler for etiquette; Matthew, who appears to be the youngest; Sam, who wears a horrible vest; and Erik, the suave pretty boy.

Actually, the game advertises six men and three women. The sixth guy is probably Andrew, the son of the vice-chairmen of the company my grandfather owned. The women would be high school best friends, Suzu and Naomi? Who’s the third? Why would you go into an incubus dating game and not date an incubus?

Anyways, the selection is not that enticing, and even despite their demonhood, I doubt they’re interested in sharing me. I’m going to target Erik, he seems the most forward. Though, I’m open to having someone else sink their claws into me, boys.

INCUBUS, INCUBI

This is a romantic visual novel where you make decisions that affect who you wind up with, as opposed to a true dating sim or one where you select who you’re going to woo from the hop. Although, it might as well be. Once the boys have been introduced, your parents force you to have a housewarming party. You’re then asked whether you go out with your friends while the incubi set up for the party, or help them prepare for the festivities. This is the point where it’s basically asking you who you want to be with, make no mistake.

So, I get to know Erik a bit better. Kind of. He’s a gentleman, but that seems to be about it.

After the party, the group is suddenly attacked by a devil (that’s the game’s terminology for it, and it sounds a bit goofy to me) named Malix. He is comically evil, straight down to the maniacal laugh. I wonder if he’s single. However, it turns out that grandpa dabbled in magic and set up a ward around his mansion which prevents hell magic. This means Malix can’t fire his gun for some reason and they beat a hasty retreat.

I later make lunch for the boys as they train to fight back against Malix. I don’t know what kind of training can be done in the condensed amount of time available, but whatever. I use lunch as an excuse to go and make out with Erik until I lose consciousness as he sucks the sexual energy out of my body. That seems weird, are humans powered by sexual energy?

SEXUAL ENERGY

I then decide to explore my new mansion and quickly find an office with a locked drawer. Once I manage to open it, I find grandpa’s spellbook and take a few notes. I bring this up because it will be important as immediately as the next paragraph.

The next day Erik tells me his true name so I can summon him if I’m ever in need, which is a good thing because I get kidnapped by Malix. It’s nice that someone is finally trying to actually seduce me. I decide to see how much trouble I can get into by fighting back. To my surprise, my grandfather’s ghost shows up, reminds me about magic, and I use my powers to hold off Malix until the boys show up to rescue me. Shucks, that wasn’t much trouble at all.

I then have a romantic moment with Erik and the game fades out without me getting any action.

OH, NO WAIT

Then it fades back into me getting harassed in my bed by a succubus named Diana. The third female romance option, maybe?

As it turns out, she’s arranged to marry one of the boys and wants to take them back to the Abyssal Plains with her. Like, all of them? They actually bring up the fact that marrying one of them is like marrying all of them, which I don’t get. However, the boys stand their ground and she leaves without incident.

She decides to make my life a living hell by showing up at school as a substitute teacher. We get in an argument about the Little Mermaid, which I win with my sentimentality. Then she uses her powers to dismiss school for the rest of the week and sends me home.

The boys are there, and I demand that they tell me what’s going on. They then send me into a flashback where I learn… nothing really new. I guess I get to see their demon forms, which I’m hoping they can transform into at will. Meow.

Back in the real world, Diana shows up again. She threatens to steal Erik away, but we chase her off with our love. Seriously.

Erik and I climb into the shower, but I’m too much of a prude to make love to him in the bathroom, so we return to the bedroom and go at it like foxes. Actually, I’m pretty sure we’re both virgins, so we probably went at it like awkward teenagers.

Afterwards, Diana shows up again and offers me anything I want. Money, power, men, women, whatever. I say “no” because I want the good ending, so she steals all my sexual energy with a kiss and disappears into the night.

FAREWELL, MY LOVE

There’s an endgame wrapup that tells me all the other boys left my house, presumably sick of hearing feral screaming at all hours. James becomes the CEO of my grandfather’s toy company. Then Erik and I reaffirm our love for one another and he maybe proposes to me?

Wow.

That was not what I hoped for. The game certainly has some danger to the romance, but the romance is… not romantic. I have no idea what I could possibly see in Erik aside from the fact that he’s a demon and can make me feel pleasure. The characters bond over nothing, then proclaim their love because they’re not ready to part. It’s been, like, a week. People can fall in love fast, but usually there’s a reason. A spark. That doesn’t come across here. My girl must just be thirsty.

I don’t know what I expected for the price of free, and I’m not trying to say the game is without merit, but it did really let me down. I guess the mention of darker themes grabbed me, but every time I thought something interesting would happen, it was just enh.

I try to avoid talking about how I liked the game itself, which is part of the reason these aren’t reviews. It takes a lot of passion, a lot of hard work, and a willingness to put yourself out there to write a romantic visual novel or dating sim, so I really hate stepping on that. It’s also very bold to take all that hard work and put it on Steam for free. On the other hand, it takes a lot of effort to make demon boys seem boring, yet here we are.

This article is based on the PC version of the game picked up from Steam. The game is free, so maybe give it a try sometime.